Considering Ottawa’s reputation as one of the country’s most expensive places in which to do business, you would think the city could at least offer owners conventional services in return for their exorbitant taxes.
Instead, last year, approximately 3,500 small businesses in Ottawa saw their garbage pick-up service discontinued by the city.
But why should businesses have their garbage services cut when their taxes have not been reduced? Many have been asking city hall this question.
On April 12, in the wake of some stark criticisms from merchants, a report was supposed to be presented to the city’s planning and environment committee regarding the costs involved in restoring garbage pick-up service to the small business community. Now the city has decided to put off the unveiling of this report until later this spring. Given how adamant the city is about how much money the cancellation of the service saves, business owners probably shouldn’t hold their breath anticipating the return of city-financed waste removal.
The city’s manager of solid-waste services recently said that discontinuing garbage pick-up saves the city between $400,000 and $500,000 annually. But just how important can those extra six digits really be to a city with a budget that allocates $650,000 to add a few extra roadside grass cuts per year?
Ottawa’s 2005 budget also includes $600,000 for the removal of leaf and yard waste, and almost a third of a million dollars on tourism initiatives. Perhaps the city will get its priorities straight when the tourists it attracts are turned off by garbage mounting in the streets because small businesses can’t afford private pick-up.
Alternately, high private removal fees have compelled some merchants to take their garbage home with them because their residential garbage pick-up is still in place. But there’s only so much trash that one person can have in his backyard, especially considering that it’s not just garbage, but also recycling that merchants must manage without any help from the city.
Others have chosen to pay private waste removal fees, which vary depending on the type and weight of the garbage. For Bridgehead Coffee’s headquarters, waste and recycling removal fees are about $1,000 a month for its five Ottawa stores. This, of course, is in addition to its municipal taxes.
And thanks to the laws of inefficiency, garbage, cans and bottles and cardboard are all removed on separate schedules and, of course, have separate fees that businesses must incur.
With three million feet of vacant office space already presenting a gaping hole in Ottawa’s business community, hopefully the April 12 report will lead to good news for merchants, instead of giving them yet another high-priced reason to vacate.
If the city is looking for new ways to drive business out of Ottawa, cutting simple services like garbage pick-up is probably a good start. If it wishes to maintain a healthy economy, however, it may wish to rethink its unreasonable cost-cutting measures.